Redefining the Center: LGBTQ Youth & Families (Online Session)

This class is held over six weeks, meeting an hour per week online. Participants must be able to attend all six weeks to register. All meetings will be held from noon-1pm on Thursdays.

Redefining the Center: LGBTQ Youth & Families
This curriculum is designed to help you begin centering LGBTQ youth in your work as an advocate.

As a result of completing this class, we expect you’ll:
-have a thorough understanding of the concepts of sexual orientation and gender identity and be able to understand common LGBTQ terminology,
-understand and have empathy for common issues LGBTQ youth and families experience as well as be able to recognize the resilience of LGBTQ people,
-understand how systems of oppression have been created at the societal and institutional level to purposefully disenfranchise LGBTQ people,
-have actionable strategies to advocate for LGBTQ people both individually and within systems.

More about our cohort continuing education classes:
You’ll complete the curriculum material within a cohort of other CASA Volunteers over six weeks. Each week, you and the other CASA Volunteers participating will complete materials to read or watch on your own and a homework assignment prior to attending a debrief session. This work on your own should take about an hour to complete. During the one hour debrief session with your cohort, you’ll be able to discuss the materials as well as listen to facilitated materials by a member of the ProKids team.

More about the Redefining the Center series:
As mentioned previously, this curriculum is designed to help you begin your journey centering LGBTQ youth in your work as an advocate. We hope that by completing this curriculum, you become inspired to explore more about the topics discussed and continuously learn how you can better show up for the LGBTQ community in your life.
Minority communities are over-represented in the child protection system. LGBTQ youth are represented in foster care at rates 3-5 times higher than in the general public.
When we center minority communities, it means solving problems from their perspective, and considering them first in every potential solution. We need to move beyond asking whether a strategy will serve everyone to focusing first on whether it will effectively address the needs of those most likely to be in need.